Generally, piping is used in the nuclear, petrochemical, and other industries for transporting fluids. A large amount of piping may be set up around a facility in an intricate, non-linear fashion. The transported fluids in the piping may be under high pressures, poisonous, and/or combustible. These factors and others may cause the pipes to degrade over time by corrosion, erosion, depositing, and blockage. This degradation may result in leakages, explosions, or other undesirable results. Leaks or fugitive emissions may also occur along a pipeline at flanges, joints, valves, vessels, etc. Moreover, keeping track of materials, such as valves, flanges, vessels, motors, etc., around a facility is important.
Monitoring the performance of the pipes is essential. For example, monitoring for the integrity of a pipe and/or for fugitive emissions is essential. Reliable and swift monitoring may signal when a pipe, flange, etc. requires replacement or repair. One integrity parameter to monitor is the wall thickness of the pipes. Common methods used to measure and monitor wall thickness include ultrasonic, visual, mechanical, optical, electromagnetic, electronic, thermal, chemical, and analytical inspection as well as infrared thermography, magnetic flux leakage (MFL), radioisotope gamma radiometry, and radiography.
Regardless of the method used, problems exist. For example, a user may have to return to a control room before analyzing retrieved data. A user may have to return to a control room to compare a current performance reading obtained at an inspection point to a last performance reading recorded at that inspection point. Accordingly, a user would not know while onsite or in real time whether any problems exist regarding a pipe or a particular reading. Further, a user may take measurements along a pipe in the wrong order, resulting in confusion, wasted time, higher operating costs, and recording errors.
The present disclosure may utilize memory modules. An exemplary memory module may include a nonvolatile memory. Examples of nonvolatile memory are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,506,757 and 5,576,936. Other examples of memory modules are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,252 and patent application 2004/0135,668. The subject matter of these patents and patent application are incorporated herein by this reference thereto.